We are Paying the Phone Companies through NSA to Spy on US!

[KoKo]

from USA TODAY article on NSA DataMining/Spying....

The NSA's domestic program began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks,
according to the sources. Right around that time, they said, NSA
representatives approached the nation's biggest telecommunications
companies. The agency made an urgent pitch: National security is at
risk, and we need your help to protect the country from attacks.

The agency told the companies that it wanted them to turn over their
"call-detail records," a complete listing of the calling histories of
their millions of customers. In addition, the NSA wanted the carriers to
provide updates, which would enable the agency to keep tabs on the
nation's calling habits.

The sources said the NSA made clear that it was willing to pay for the
cooperation. AT&T, which at the time was headed by C. Michael Armstrong,
agreed to help the NSA. So did BellSouth, headed by F. Duane Ackerman;
SBC, headed by Ed Whitacre; and Verizon, headed by Ivan Seidenberg.

With that, the NSA's domestic program began in earnest.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm?POE=N

[kenny blankenship]

1. This is what's known as a 'private-public partnership'

where the gov't is the public end and the telecom corporations are the private end, jointly maximizing their return on the assets they own: you.

[tridim]

2. Isn't that also known as Fascism?

[kenny blankenship]

3. Oh sure, get out your dictionary and flog me with semantics, Tridim

...or shall I call you Encyclopedia Brown?

[rodeodance]

4. yup

[kentuck]

5. It's time to "de-monopolize" them again?

Break them up again. They are dangerous in their present form.

[Trillo]

6. Good read. Recommended.

I vaguely remember that QWest was having some "problems" for a time a few years back.

I also remember that AT&T had some problems, further back, sometime in the 80s (or was it 70s?) No matter. Now, it appears, as if by magic, AT&T has recovered their former glory. Perhaps breaking AT&T up was simply a "magic trick" of illusion that the government directed to usurp the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

But aren't most people glad that gays can't marry? /sarcasm

[KoKo]

7. Kick for the "Night Crowd Populists" amonst us.....

I know you are out there. And, how 'bout our Libertarians who used to "break out in hives over Big Government Control. Doesn't spying send you into Cardiac Arrest?